Ascend to the big picture - with God at the helm

“Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer,” wrote St. Paul (Rom. 12:12). His advice is enduring, but experience shows its implementation can be challenging when times get tough.

As a virtue and even conceptually, hope is often misunderstood. It can be mere wishful thinking, or a pollyannaish optimism that disregards genuine problems or concerns. Reasonable hope, however, acknowledges reality yet embodies confidence that present troubles and obstacles can be overcome.
In an oft-cited blog several years ago in Harvard Business Review, corporate innovation consultant Deborah Mills-Scofield referred to hope as a business “strategy” for leaders.

“Hope recognizes the reality that failure happens, success is not assured, the laws of physics don’t change, and prudence is needed to discern when to persevere — and when to pivot,” she wrote. “Hope doesn’t demarcate a linear path, but it does guide us through twists and turns … Hope supports realistic optimism, a necessary component of success.”

For Catholics, hope is something greater still. It is one of the three theological virtues — faith, hope, and love — and it reminds us to aspire to things that are good, in the sure knowledge that God will strengthen us to achieve them.

Theological hope enables us “to put our trust in God and to be confident that He will always, continually provide the help that we require in order to reach the goal that He has set for us” — ultimately, eternal life with Him in heaven, writes Fr. Philip Bochanski, a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and director of Courage International, in his book The Virtue of Hope: How Confidence in God Can Lead You to Heaven (TAN Books).

Trying times threaten a spirit of hope because so much of what is marketed in the news and social media propagates turmoil and insecurity, and from the relativistic perspective of a secular society, Fr. Bochanski said. This creates a “perfect storm” of despair by building a “compulsively attached audience while destroying the emotional and spiritual health of each member of it.”

In this context, “hope begins when one is able to break away from this attachment, and from the perceived need to explain, fix, or deal with all the problems of the world, and trust God to be in charge,” he said.

That self-reliance, as well as the feeling of isolation — that I am alone in my difficulties — worsen one’s frustrations. We tend to be ashamed of our weakness and are reluctant to turn to God.

“Self-reliance deludes us into thinking that we can —and often that we have to — figure out life ourselves,” said Fr. Bochanski. The virtues, including the virtue of hope, call us to orient ourselves to God first so that His grace, wisdom, and love can empower us.

Riding out THE storm

The COVID-19 pandemic has created stresses for individuals, families, and businesses alike. Particularly hard hit by lockdowns and travel restrictions has been the hospitality and leisure industry. The U.S. Travel Association reported in February that this sector suffered 39 percent of all jobs lost since February 2020, and some industry insiders estimate revenue losses of 50 percent or more since the pandemic struck.

As more people are vaccinated and social distancing is eased, many are seeing signs of hope for recovery as the summer season approaches. Yet pandemic-related revenue losses will have lasting negative effects in some
tourism quarters. Martyr’s Shrine in Midland, Ontario — which houses relics of St. Jean de Brebeuf, St. Gabriel Lalemant, and St. Charles Garnier near the site of the 17th-century Ste. Marie Among the Hurons Mission — will remain closed to the public for the second consecutive summer. Yet the Jesuits who operate it — with realistic vision and immense hope — are cutting costs and raising funds with an eye toward reopening in 2022.

“We’re able to sustain this treasure, have it nice for when people come back, and have the resources available to bring the staff in required to make it work,” the shrine’s director, Jesuit Fr. Michael Knox, told The Catholic Register. “God is really helping us. The love of people is really helping us. But we’re not out of the woods.”

John Abbate, a Santa Barbara Legate who owns some two dozen McDonald’s restaurants across California’s Central Valley, said the early stages of the pandemic presented “a gloomy and challenging time” for him personally and professionally.

“From the fragility of our health to the complete upheaval of our business and economy, the tenuous understanding of what tomorrow may bring was our most significant barrier to embracing optimism and hope,” Abbate explained.

He continued to visit his restaurants, offering encouragement and reprieves from stress for his employees and managers, helping them focus on maintaining team unity and serving customers.

He also kept himself “centered and trusting in God’s ultimate plan for myself and the world” through daily prayer, participation in Mass online, and journaling. “These small daily routines helped me find the hope and trust that whatever happens, God is with me.”

A vocation perspective

In his book, Fr. Bochanski names several exemplars of the virtue of hope. For business executives, he said, the late Jesuit Fr. Walter Ciszek (1904- 84) comes to mind.

While a clandestine missionary in the Soviet Union, Fr. Ciszek was arrested as a “Vatican spy.” Tortured, he spent five years in solitary confinement, nine years in a Siberian work camp, and nine more under house arrest. “In his prison cell, he was confronted with the reality that he had come to the end of his abilities and could no longer depend on his own resources to survive, much less to excel,” said Fr. Bochanski. “He began to fall into despair, but God quickly caught him and transformed loss into gain, giving him a deep knowledge of his need to trust and hope in God for everything. This was the pivotal moment that changed the rest of his life.”

That also resonates with St. Paul, who explained to the Romans how suffering can build virtue and thereby lead us to hope: “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Rom. 5:3-5).

For Fr. Bochanski, it often comes down to understanding the notion of vocation: that we are called to a supernatural commitment to a way of life that will make us saints and to follow God’s plan completely.

Business leaders are highly skilled and experienced executives confident in their own ideas and judgments and recognized as wise and trustworthy by the teams they lead, he said.

“This is not a bad thing in itself, especially when a leader is using his God-given abilities with humility and prudence and keeping the human dignity of both coworkers and clients in mind,” said Fr. Bochanski. “But the life of Father Ciszek demonstrates how depending too much on one’s own abilities can become a serious obstacle to trusting and depending on God.”

Therein lies the lesson.

“When we’ve made this definitive choice — not just to follow God, but to rely on him completely and in every moment — then we begin to live the virtue of hope,” he said. 

GERALD KORSON, editorial consultant for Legatus magazine, is based in Indiana.